Comcast Xfinity Share app lets you stream video to a friend's TV

Comcast just announced its own live streaming app to compete with Periscope and Meerkat. Xfinity Share is available now for Android and iOS, though it’s pretty limited at the moment.

The new app lets you stream video from your smartphone straight to someone else’s phone or TV. However, you both need to be paying for Xfinity Triple Play service and have access to the company’s X1 set-top box software. Comcast is still working on rolling out X1 to many of its customers, so for now Xfinity Share’s scope will be extremely limited.

Still, the potential here seems pretty obvious. Periscope and Meerkat may appeal to a younger generation, but for everyone else Comcast’s solution sounds a lot more practical. Based on the company’s own renders, you could go from watching TV to watching a live stream with just a few clicks from the remote.

Down the road, Comcast also plans to offer new features that should expand what Xfinity Share can do. That includes the ability to share your stream with anyone via email, and broadcast to up to five people at the same time. Video playback is also coming eventually, along with the ability a stop, pause and rewind a stream as you’re watching it.

Even with all those features, Comcast will likely never have the reach some live streaming apps already offer. Still, it’s a unique approach to the sharing market for a cable and Internet provider.